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Take Control of FileVault

Protect your Mac’s data in the event of theft with Apple’s FileVault!

If your Mac were stolen, would you worry about the thief seeing your email, photos, financial data, and other sensitive information? OS X’s built-in FileVault encryption technology ensures that your Mac’s contents are safe from prying eyes, but if you’re hesitant to entrust your data to an algorithm before you understand how FileVault works, this book will dispel any misconceptions, answer your questions, and get you running FileVault with confidence.

Security expert Joe Kissell begins by demystifying FileVault in a quick FAQ that explains, among other things, how it is that you can work with your startup drive normally even though all the data on it is encrypted. After the FAQ, Joe provides detailed steps for activating and using FileVault on both your startup volume and external drives. He also explains how FileVault interacts with your backups and how to use Find My Mac (because, remember, the point of FileVault is to protect your data in the event of theft) once you’ve turned on FileVault.

Additional topics include making and using encrypted disk images, third-party software that can encrypt just a single file or folder, and accessing special FileVault features from the command line.

More Info

FileVault facts and features that you’ll master include:

Essential tips for protecting external drives with FileVault

Pros and cons of encrypting the backup of a FileVault-encrypted drive

Important steps for safeguarding encrypted drives from motivated thieves

Whether your data is safe when your Mac is sleeping

Whether your data is safe from other logged-in users on the same Mac

Pros and cons of letting Apple store your recovery key

How to avoid panicking if you forget your FileVault password

FileVault and Disk Utility features found only on the command line

This book covers FileVault 2, which was introduced in 10.7 Lion and is far better than, and completely different from, the original version of FileVault (now called Legacy FileVault). Everything in this book works with 10.10 Yosemite and 10.9 Mavericks. A few minor things have changed over the years, but anyone with 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion should also find the book useful.

FAQ

What version of FileVault, and in which versions of OS X, does this book cover?

It covers FileVault 2, which was introduced in 10.7 Lion and is far better than, and completely different from, the original version of FileVault (now called Legacy FileVault). Everything in this book works with 10.10 Yosemite and 10.9 Mavericks. A few minor things have changed over the years, but anyone with 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion should also find the book useful.

Update Plans

January 14, 2015 – Now that this ebook is updated for Yosemite, we don’t have any immediate plans to update it again. If Apple makes more changes in the future, we’ll consider another update.

Joe made his first MacVoices interview of the year a triple-decker, discussing his Take Control of Dropbox, Take Control of File Vault, and his latest book, currently streaming a new chapter every week on TidBITS for TidBITS members, Take Control of Security for Mac Users. No need to feel insecure: you’re welcome to drop in on the discussion.

Although it is one of the cheapest and easiest ways for users to secure their Mac’s data, most Mac users don’t use FileVault. In this 38-minute MacVoices interview, Joe explains to Chuck Joiner why many users are needlessly wary of this free feature of OS X, and points out some interesting FileVault capabilities that even its users may not know.

Take Control publisher Joe Kissell has written more than 60 books about technology, including many popular Take Control books. He also runs Interesting Thing of the Day and is a contributing editor of TidBITS and a senior contributor to Macworld.

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